They all shared a laugh as the worried Rainbow Dash flew off into the distance, Star turned to Twilight "Are you ever going to tell her that you changed the time on the clock to be forty five minutes fast?" he asked.
Twilight put on her best innocent face "What? Me? I would never prank Rainbow, even though it might seem like payback for her replacing my shampoo with bright yellow hair dye, do you really think that an egghead librarian like me could trick a devious mastermind like her?"
This caused Star to burst into a fit of laughter, followed by Twilight, which caused everypony to laugh at the interaction.
"Well this has been nice, but sadly it took me all of the 6 months Star has been here to accumulate enough energy to be able to speak to you all for this long, so with a heavy heart, I bid you all ado." Solar said sounding slightly depressed.
"It's okay, you can still hear them and speak to me." Star reassured him.
"Now I have to figure out if being stuck with only you is a good thing or a bad thing." Solar replied sarcastically.
"Hey! That wasn't nice!" Star retorted out loud.
"Who are you talking to now? Do you have some other second secret brother?" Pinkie asked conspiratorially.
Star let out a long sigh before replying "I was speaking to Solar, I just forgot that we can speak mentally, which makes me look and sound less crazy while we converse."
They each sat in silence, none of them wanting to be the one to break the sudden silence that suddenly came over them. Star turned to look at Celestia for a moment when a thought came to his mind, not knowing exactly how to bring it up "M-mother? I don't wish to bring up any sour memories or anything, but I am sure that we all have a fair amount of questions involving father and what lead up to him doing whatever it was that he did, so, if I may ask, what was he doing when he created Discord?" he asked sounding fairly nervous.
She stared at him for a moment with a blank expression, as if she were inspecting and analyzing him, before she gave him a beaming smile "There are no memories of your father that are sour, so do not hesitate about asking of him, I still miss him a great deal, but do not fret, you deserve to know." As she said this her beaming smile turned into another blank expression.
She paused, pacing the room for a moment as if contemplating how to explain "You can take a few hours to collect your thoughts, I think that it would be better if we waited for Rainbow and Applejack to return first." Star offered.
Celestia gave him an expression of such relief it seems like he had just freed her from a dragon "I would appreciate it, I haven't thought about it in a great deal of time." She said in a grateful tone that matched her expression.
She gave them each her farewell before retreating to who knows where inside the castle. Star then turned to his friends with a questioning look "So….. how've you girls been?" he asked trying to start a conversation.
There was an awkward silence that followed the question "Geez, did somepony die?" Star asked jokingly.
Twilight grimaced at this "Up until yesterday, we had thought that you were going to."
"Why did you think that?" he asked somberly.
Twilight looked very uncomfortable "While you were…. Incapacitated, you had… problems, more than once your brain shut down or your heart refused to beat, but nopony could figure out why, and none of us liked seeing you in such pain." She paused for quite some time before continuing "That is why the girls were able to get here so quickly, we planned ahead to be here today, it hurts me to say this, but we were going to plan your funeral."
This hit Star like a train "Oh." He replied dryly.
Twilight winced back, expecting him to explode from their lack of faith in him. Star felt as if he should be furious at this, like he should be outraged that they gave up on him, but for some reason, he could see no reason to do so "Well, all that matters is that I'm here now!" he replied in a Pinkie Pie cheerful tone.
"I'm sorry it's just that-wait, what?" Twilight said with a double take, what he had said and how he said it surprised her to no end "I thought you would be mad that we gave up on you?"
"I think I probably should be, given the circumstances I should probably be furious, but I can't really see why I should be, I mean think about it rationally, I was in pain showing no sign of recovering, and in my pain I was making you girls worry, and seeing me in such pain must have been horrible, so it was for the best, I could have just dropped dead at any moment from the pain." He said plainly.
Twilight sighed in relief and annoyance "Only the child of Celestia could be this rational, I am sure that if it were almost anypony else they would have been furious." She said to nopony in particular "Except maybe Fluttershy." She added.
"Well, we have a few more hours before more answers, worries, and drama is added into the puzzle that I call my life, what would you girls like to do today?" Star asked in an upbeat tone.
This caught them off guard seeing as most of their eyes widened in surprise "Ooooooh! I know!" Pinkie exclaimed.
She proceeded to pull a calendar from nowhere, she then began to flip through a few pages before sighing "There isn't anything to celebrate today!" she said with a pout.
"We don't need to celebrate anything though, we can just find something to do, or we could just sit around and talk." Star offered.
"So, just hang out?" Twilight asked
"Sure, we never have before." Star confirmed.
"What ever would we possibly do though?" Rarity asked.
Star thought a moment before his train of thought was interrupted by his growling stomach "Why don't we go into town and I will treat us all to a nice lunch?" he suggested.
"Sounds good to me!" Pinkie agreed.
After deciding on that they all set out into town to look for a place to eat. As they wandered around Canterlot Twilight would suggest one thing just to have Rarity contradict it and lead to somewhere else, usually they would drag poor Fluttershy into the conflict as a third opinion.
But besides that occasional disagreement their walk around Canterlot was relatively quiet, though they did attract the occasional gaze or whisper they were usually immediately withdrawn for some reason or another "What are they afraid of me?" Star thought to himself.
Eventually though, hoping to avoid being in the center of another disagreement, Fluttershy found a café by the name of Java's cafe just off the side of the main road, it was the kind of place that you would pass by without a second thought, in fact, the four of them had passed right by it when Fluttershy had stopped by it, with all of them in agreement of their place of choice they walked inside.
From the outside it just looked plain, compared to every other building in the city, but from the inside it was quite different from the sophistication of the usual building in Canterlot, it had a simple look to it, the floors were made of dark brown planks of wood, the walls were a light green, not like lime green or neon green, just a lighter version of a woodland type green, and there were a few tables around the room, including a few stalls here and there.
At the main counter there was a grey earth pony with a black mane wearing a white apron, this pony was speaking to another pony who appeared to be the waitress, she was a cyan colored unicorn, not as sky blue as Rainbow, but a much darker cyan and her mane was a deep purple.
As they noticed Star and his friends approaching the smiled warmly and welcomed them "Can I help you all?" the earth pony asked.
"Yes actually, can we have a menu or something to see what you sell here?" Twilight asked.
"Sure, here you are." The unicorn said levitating each of them a menu that read what was available.
With that they left and sat in a nearby stall, with Star, Twilight and Rarity in one side, and Pinkie and Fluttershy sitting on the other. After a few moments they were approached by the waitress, she greeted them with a warm smile "I don't believe I've met any of you before, are you new in town?" the unicorn asked.
"Well, yes, and no, we don't live here, we're just visiting, at least, I THINK I'm visiting, I'm not all too sure about that yet, but these four are just visiting." Star explained.
He received a questioning glance from her before her eyes wandered over to his wings "Wait….. aren't you….?" She started to say before she ran over to the other pony, she started to say something and speak very animatedly.
While this was happening they all shared questioning glances, she suddenly reappeared by their table "Sorry about that, but as I was saying, aren't you Prince Starlight?" she asked pleasantly
Star winced at that "Please don't call me that, I don't really like my full name, you can call me Star." He said introducing himself.
"Nice to meet you Star, my name is Amethyst Mist, and that old colt over there is Java Bean." She responded introducing the colt who was at the counter.
"I am not old! I'm just… youth challenged is all!" he defended.
This caused them all to laugh at him, Java simply shook his head and chuckled "So, what can I get you all?" Amethyst asked nicely, but mostly looking at Star.
"I'll have a daffodil sandwich, and some Ceylon tea please." He asked not noticing that she was staring at him.
After the rest of them had each ordered their own foods Amethyst walked away with a smile "What's she up to?" Rarity asked suspiciously.
"What do you mean?" Star asked.
"She was staring at you and smiling the whole time, she must be up to something." Twilight agreed acting very conspiratorial.
"I think that she was just doing her job, you know, being a waitress she is probably just supposed to be nice to the customers." Star explained with a roll of his eyes.
Twilight and Rarity both looked over at each other, nodded, then looked over at Fluttershy and Pinkie for support, Pinkie simply shrugged and Fluttershy hid in her mane avoiding eye contact.
Star sighed and let his mind wander "What's up with those two lately? They've been acting strange for a while, maybe they really are in a relationship?" he contemplated this for a moment before dismissing it with a laugh "I really doubt that though."
When Amethyst returned with their food and drinks Star found that she was actually staring at him with very much interest "Are you okay? According to my friends you have been staring at me for a while now." Star asked curiously.
Her eyes widened and a blush grew on her face "Oh, I- um- that is- I mean-." She seemed slightly flustered for a moment before shaking her head "I was just excited that Prince Starlight decided to visit our tiny café, imagine the kind of business this is going to get us! This'll show those snooty ponies down at Canterlots finest!" she said proudly.
"Pardon?" Star asked with a raised eyebrow.
She blushed and gave him a sheepish grin "The owner and workers over there usually get more business than us and rub it in our noses, but now that royalty has been here, we will get way more business than them, so for once we will be doing the nose rubbing!" she said happily.
"I'm glad I could be of some use." Star said cheerfully.
He received dirty looks from both Twilight and Rarity, he gave them a questioning look before they turned to their food and began to eat with angry expressions. Amethyst shared his confusion but simply shrugged it off "Anyway, if you need anything, please feel free to call." She said walking back over to Java.
Star turned back to Rarity and Twilight "What was that about? Did I do something wrong?" he asked.
"She is just using you for publicity! How can you be okay with that!" Rarity demanded.
Star simply shrugged "Well, I am eating food here, and it isn't exactly my fault that it helps with publicity or whatever, and I can't really help it even if I wanted to, I am already here and eating." He explained.
Just as Amethyst had predicted a few ponies had started to come in and order food, she looked over at Star and gave him a thankful smile. Star turned back to Twilight and Rarity "See? How can something that makes somepony happy be all bad?" he asked.
Rarity remained silent and Twilight mumbled something unintelligible under her breath "I agree with Star, what's wrong with making somepony happy?" Pinkie asked.
"Nothing, it just doesn't seem right to use Star for publicity is all." Rarity replied avoiding eye contact with them.
"Rarity, anywhere I go for a while will probably attract attention or "publicity" because I am the secret son of Princess Celestia and Starswirl, ponies would crowd to see her if she was in public, and I am new and a mystery, so whether I want it or not, I am going to attract attention." Star explained.
Rarity sighed "I guess, let's just enjoy our food."
With that they all resumed eating their own food. After they had finished Star called over the now very busy Amethyst, she hurriedly approached their table "Is there anything you need?" she asked.
"Yes, how much do I owe for the meal?" he asked.
"You mean the bill?" she asked with a tilt of her head.
Star looked left and right suspiciously "I don't see any ducks here." He said with a straight face.
This made Amethyst giggle "Okay, here is the bill for the food." She said writing on a small notepad then placing the paper she had been writing on onto their table.
Surprisingly enough, the bill only summed up to 20 bits, though he was sure it was at least 35 or more. Looking through the bill it read the prices of each of the meals, it totaled up to 43 bits, but at the bottom of the list of meals it subtracted 13 bits for "publicity" and under that it subtracted another 10 for "making me laugh" this made Star smile.
Star took out the appropriate amount of bits and left a decent tip, he left a total of 25 bits. They then left the café with full stomachs.
The trip back to the castle was peaceful, until two blurs shot past them, very familiar rainbow and orange blurs, heading right for the castle. When they finally arrived at the palace they saw Rainbow and Applejack arguing, and there was only one thing it could be over "Neither of you won." Star said before they could eve raise the question.
"Whatever I totally won!" Rainbow argued.
"No ah won! If anythin 'twas a tie!" Applejack retorted.
"Why don't you just race later, to determine who won this one?" Star asked.
"I'm fine with it if she is." Rainbow agreed.
Applejack shrugged "Ah don't see why not."
"So, how was the show?" Twilight asked with a devious smile.
"We were twenty minutes early!" Rainbow beamed "I went so fast that I went back in time!"
Twilight facehoofed, causing everypony besides her, Rainbow and Applejack to break out laughing "What's so funny?" Rainbow asked.
Ignoring her question Star led the group of ponies back inside the palace, and surprisingly enough, waiting for them patiently inside were both Princess Celestia and Luna "We've been awaiting your return." Celestia said with a smile.
"I guess that means you are ready to answer all of our questions?" Star asked.
"Yes, I am as prepared as I can possibly be." She answered with a smile.
She gestured for them to follow and they did. She led them down a few hallways until they came upon a very cozy looking room, there was a very soft carpet, a few chairs and a lit fireplace against one of the walls.
When they all finally got cozy Celestia sighed "Alright, what questions would you like me to answer first?" she asked hesitantly.
"I've got one to start with, why doesn't Star know anything about Romance or what happens between a Stallion and a Mare to create a child?" Rarity asked.
Celestia sighed "He was very sheltered, that and because he was so isolated he never even met a girl besides me or either of his aunts, he didn't go through the stage that most ponies do that makes them think differently about the opposite gender, as he never really met anypony, so he doesn't know anything about romance or how it feels to have a crush or to be in love, at least, I don't believe that he does." She explained.
Rarity nodded, accepting the answer "That would make sense, we usually start to develop *ahem* attractions to other ponies at a young age, but I can see how that would put him at a loss in the subject."
"I don't get it." Star said simply.
This caused the other ponies in the room to giggle at his discomfort, Celestia then sighed again "Star, we will speak of this later."
She then refocused her attention to her thoughts "Anything else?" she asked.
"What was father trying to accomplish when he created Discord?" Star asked.
Celestia sighed at this "I guess it's about time I told you that, get comfy, this isn't a very pleasant story."
A/N For those of you who read ahead on Fanfiction.net I will not be posting my April fools chapter, so for those of you who haven't read it yet, you won't have to deal with it.